Magic Systems

Magic Systems

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Presented by the RolePlayGateway Mentors Team


Heard of magic? It's that one thing common in many roleplays which allows ordinary people to do extraordinary things, like throw fire from their hands, cause things to float and to go beyond the limits of normal beings. Magic can be used as a term to cover many things, but more commonly you'll find it referring specifically to magic in fantasy settings. This article will help you figure out how your magic system works, and can even be used for other powers, including psychic powers, supernatural powers, witchcraft and wizardry, demonic summoning, super powers and many other fields.

Taking a little bit of time to think out the way your magic works can often help add that special something to your roleplay to keep the players interested and it also provides a tool to add colour and depth to the characters themselves. So let's have a look at what you'll need for magic.



The Source
The Source is an important part of a magic system. It's where each individual gets their magic from, be it one big unified source or an individual one for each person. The source can be anything from a giant pool of energy which people turn into magic, to a special spark inside a characters mind that allows them to do what they do. This source doesn't necesarily need to be explained, but what does need to be known is how people can use the magic they use, which we'll go into later.

For now, just be aware that a source should be named. This name can be entirely made up, though keeping it simple and easily memorable helps. In some fiction its known simply as 'mana' or 'The Source'.



How do People Draw on Magic?
This is possibly the most important part of the entire topic, other then what the magic can do. There needs to be a way for people to draw on this amazing source of power. There are many different ways to do this, so here are a few of the more common options.

Focus: Just like it sounds, the person calling on the magic focuses hard to mentally locate that source and call it to them. This is for the more traditional roleplaying game wizard, the sort who stands at the back concentrating hard to use spells to help their allies in what way they can.
Emotion: Similar to focus, this magic is especially common in drama driven roleplays where in scenes of intense emotion, great feats can be performed by drawing on the magic. Often if this is the case, the leading emotion of the magic user will come through in a certain style or theme. That will be discussed later on.
Incantations: This covers a lot of things from hand gestures to uttered special casting words to drawn symbols. Incantations are for a world where people must do magic in a certain way for it to be performed, like draw a certain symbol or indicate with their hands in a certain pattern.
Asking for Help: Whether asking for divine intervention, ancestral help or summoning spirits to lend a hand, asking provides a very interesting kind of magic and definitely adds texture to an otherwise bland area. In this sort of world, magic users are less combat orientated, usually praying or calling on something to ask for help. As a general rule, the person or thing asked for help is of greater power than that of the one asking for help.
Magic Item: The magic is channelled through an item of power, like a wand or staff. Such a magic style is mostly used in addition to another, but has been known to stand alone.

Most of these magic types drain the magic user in some fashion, usually causing them to be tired and worn out, or just some other limit to stop them from using magic endlessly.



What Magic Can Do/Styles and Themes
Magic is versatile, completely unrestricted topic until you start to make it for your roleplay. There are an endless number of ways to set what magic does or does not do in your world. But let's face it, magic being able to do anything is boring. There's no fun in just being able to do whatever you want, so rather than limiting your players by saying they can't do this and they can't do that, make it interesting. This is where styles and themes come in.

A style or theme adds a certain touch of individualism to your magic system that others might not have. For example, do your magic users need wands? To perform magic do they have to announce everything they do? Are colours of magic related to effects and emotions? Should the magic users do a silly dance to cast spells?

Alright, that does seem a little over the top, but there are many things to consider. Try colour. What does green represent? Poison? Goodness? Envy? In your roleplay you can make this change what your magic does. Poisonous magic may be represented by a sickly green or purple colour. A calm person represented by a cool blue. Just by considering the colour of the magic you can make the world themed dramatically, and characters magic influenced more by plot then by what they feel like doing at the time.

Got all that? Now think about a person drawing on the source. Where does this magic arrive in their body? Perhaps their heart, the centre point of their emotions, or their brain, the focus point of logic. Maybe even their hands where they cast from.

Combining this all together can set a fantastic backdrop for a great roleplay and can help the players add depth to their characters purely through what magic they choose to have, if any at all.


Who Can Use Magic?
This is getting down to the nitpicking. In some worlds, magic isn't available to everyone. In some worlds, it's available only to certain priviledged people who might not actually be connected to magic users at all. In other worlds, magic carries down through blood lines from parents to children. Maybe it's a certain race who can use magic when no other can or maybe only women can. While none of these are necessary, it can add to the roleplay and set up some interesting conflicts, like between upper and lower class people.



Canon Magic Systems
It's O-K to use a canon magic system, as sometimes it's hard to come up with this big fancy system on your own. If you do end up using a magic system from canon fiction make sure you have your facts straight before you do. You don't want to be made a fool in your own roleplay.



So now you have it, a full magic system. It's up to you to take care of it in your roleplay and although some things will work better than others it's always important to keep trying. If your system doesn't work or doesn't make sense, then don't be disheartened, just look for a way to make the system work.




Global Psychics, Potentially Useful Colours and Auras

Micheal Kern, 2003, The Limits of Magic